The Digital Scotland project has today revealed the next batch of 43 locations (54,000 premises), including parts of the remote Outer Hebrides, Mull and the Isle of Bute, that will benefit from their on-going £410m project with BT to ensure that “fibre broadband” (FTTC/P) services are available to 85% of premises in Scotland by the end of 2015 and 95% by the end of 2017.
The programme, which is supported by funding from the central Broadband Delivery UK scheme, hopes to help more than 750,000 premises to be put within reach of faster connectivity, which will be in addition to the 1.4 million+ that should have already benefitted through BT’s separate commercial deployment and not to mention Virgin Media’s cable (DOCSIS) upgrades.
Digital Scotland’s Current Funding
HIE – The Highlands and Islands (£145.8m):
• £126.4m from public bodies (Scottish Government, Department for Culture, Media and Sport [BDUK], Highland and Islands Enterprise and all seven local authorities that form part of the project area)
• £19.4m from BT.RES – The Rest of Scotland (£264m):
• £157 million from public sources (Scottish Government, ERDF, Department for Culture, Media and Sport [BDUK], and all 27 local authorities that form part of the Rest of Scotland Project area)
• £106.7 from BT.
So far around 216,000 extra premises have been upgraded as part of the Digital Scotland work, with take-up among the related areas standing at 5.81% for the Rest of Scotland and 6.7% for the Highlands and Islands (note that the take-up figures are older and stem from September 2014).
The latest batch of upgrades, which among other things will see “fibre broadband” reach 5,000 premises in the Outer Hebrides for the first time, appear to cover work that will take place during the first half of 2015.
It’s also noted that the Argyll and Bute roll-out is ahead of schedule (Lochgilphead, Campbeltown and Rothesay will see services from this summer) and the Orkney project is today announcing its first live services in Kirkwall.
John Swinney, Deputy First Minister, said:
“We are seeing growing momentum in the roll-out of better broadband. Homes and businesses in rural communities from Lerwick in Shetland to Gretna in Dumfries and Galloway are already able to order. The project is developing a high speed fibre network which is changing the face of broadband and helping fulfil the Scottish Government’s commitment to deliver world class connectivity in Scotland by 2020.”
Brendan Dick, Director of BT Scotland, said:
“The completion of our massive sub-sea cable laying programme has allowed us to make early inroads into delivering fibre for some of our island communities, well ahead of schedule. It’s great to see this progress when we’re still in the relatively early stages of the Digital Scotland partnership.
Our fibre network passed around 10,000 new Scottish homes and businesses every week last year and we’ll continue to reach more and more communities in the course of this year. We’re very pleased to be playing our part to help connect the nation to fast fibre broadband and we know there’s still a lot to do.”
List of the Latest Upgrades (H1 – 2015)
Local Exchange Name | Local Authority | Partnership | New Area or Infill |
Campbeltown | Argyll and Bute | HIE | New |
Craignure | Argyll and Bute | HIE | New |
Lochgilphead | Argyll and Bute | HIE | New |
Rothesay | Argyll and Bute | HIE | New |
Balmore | East Dunbartonshire | ROS | New |
Glasgow Milngavie | East Dunbartonshire | ROS | New |
Lennoxtown | East Dunbartonshire | ROS | New |
Glasgow Baillieston* | Glasgow City | ROS | New |
Glasgow Central | Glasgow City | ROS | New |
Glasgow Clydebank* | Glasgow City | ROS | New |
Glasgow Possil | Glasgow City | ROS | New |
Glasgow Stepps* | Glasgow City | ROS | New |
Aviemore | Highland | HIE | New |
Corpach | Highland | HIE | Infill |
Cromarty | Highland | HIE | New |
Culbokie | Highland | HIE | New |
Drumchardine | Highland | HIE | New |
Duror | Highland | HIE | New |
Fearn | Highland | HIE | Infill |
Fortrose | Highland | HIE | Infill |
Grantown On Spey | Highland | HIE | New |
Invergordon | Highland | HIE | Infill |
Munlochy | Highland | HIE | Infill |
Urray | Highland | HIE | New |
Bridge of Weir* | Inverclyde | ROS | New |
Kilmacolm | Inverclyde | ROS | New |
Brodie | Moray | HIE | New |
Speybay | Moray | HIE | New |
Tomintoul | Moray | HIE | New |
Glasgow Baillieston* | North Lanarkshire | ROS | New |
Glasgow Stepps* | North Lanarkshire | ROS | New |
Burray | Orkney | HIE | New |
Deerness | Orkney | HIE | New |
Evie | Orkney | HIE | New |
Finstown | Orkney | HIE | New |
Harray | Orkney | HIE | New |
Holm | Orkney | HIE | New |
Kirkwall | Orkney | HIE | Infill |
St. Margaret’s Hope | Orkney | HIE | New |
Stromness | Orkney | HIE | Infill |
Killin | Perth and Kinross | ROS | New |
Brediland | Renfrewshire | ROS | New |
Bridge of Weir* | Renfrewshire | ROS | New |
Glasgow Erskine | Renfrewshire | ROS | New |
Kilbarchan | Renfrewshire | ROS | New |
Glasgow Clydebank* | West Dunbartonshire | ROS | New |
Stornoway | Western Isles | HIE | New |
NOTE: The Broadband Delivery UK programme has also made an extra £20.99m available to help Scotland meet the 2017 target, which will need to be matched by local authorities and BT etc. The Scottish Government is currently still debating what approach to take with this funding.
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